The tour is one of striking contrasts. On the one hand the stage is completely bare, there are no gimmicks or props - not even a microphone stand. The entire show comprises 90 minutes of one man wearing a headset mic. The channel count is minimal and the front-of-house and monitor consoles are the babies of Yamaha's digital range.
On the other hand, the size of venues dictates huge hangs of Martin Audio line array, while ticket demand means multiple dates at many of the UK's biggest arenas - six at Cardiff International Arena, six at Wembley Arena, six at the Brighton Centre, seven at the Bournemouth BICC, four at London's O2 Arena.
"54 dates in venues ranging from 8,000 to 18,000 capacity and most are sold out . . . it's a huge tour," says Capital Sound Hire system engineer Pete Hughes at the third (but not last) show in Hall 4 of the Glasgow SECC.
Nowhere are these contrasts more apparent than at the front of house and monitor positions. A pair of Yamaha LS9 consoles have probably never been so fundamental to such a huge tour, but front-of-house engineer Phil Tame and monitor engineer Ant Standring were more than happy to use them.
In recent years, Tame has specialised in tours by the big names in British and Irish comedy - Lee Evans and Dara O'Briain to name just two - as well as McIntyre's previous theatre tour.
"I used an LS9-16 on the theatre tour, so it seemed obvious to take the same console out this time. I was able to take the same USB stick and put it in here, the only difference is that for this tour I'm using the LS9-32. It's ideal," he says.
"Capital Sound has four LS9s in its hire inventory and they're incredibly useful for this kind of application, for events that don't need that many channels," adds Pete Hughes. "You don't need a rack, it has all the processing you need onboard and they take up minimal space - as Phil says, it's ideal for this kind of tour."
Not surprisingly, given that the tour relies solely on McIntyre's voice, there are multiple microphone backups. Inputs to the LS9 comprise the main DPA 4088 headset microphone, plus backups comprising a spare headset mic, lavalier mic and wired Shure SM58s.
A couple of VT returns for the intro and a CD input for pre-show background music and recorded announcements complete the picture.
(Jim Evans)
